Life of the Party
by myboygeorge
Summary: It's New Years Day and Alexis has discovered a positive pregnancy test in the bathroom the morning after a wild party with the gang from the 12th precinct.  Who does it belong to? Set in the Crumbs-verse, T for language and situations.  Enjoy!
1. The Discovery

_Hello everyone! So this is yet another angle I've decided to use in the Crumbs-verse, and tell the story from an Alexis point of view as she investigates her own mystery with more than a few surprises in store! Here we go!_

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For some, the morning after a party is the recovery period with friends, a time to relive the what-was-I-drinking or you-did-what moments of the night before. For others it's a race against the clock to leave the residence of their one-night stand before the awkwardness of drunk sex set in and more people on the street would see the infamous walk of shame.

And for some, like Alexis Castle, it would be a day she would never forget.

When she awoke on New Year's Day, it was with a disgusting candy-coated feeling in her mouth, courtesy of way too much un-spiked punch and the single glass of champagne her father had permitted her at midnight. She rolled over in bed to stare at her clock, saw it was just past nine. Why was she up so early? She was one of the sucks who'd passed out around two-thirty in the morning while the party had raged on downstairs.

With a yawn she sat up, swinging her feet to the ground – and nearly kicked Lanie Parish in the ear. A hazy snapshot of the night before came back to her, as she remembered the good doctor whispering in the over-emphasized whisper of a drunk that she was just going to curl up on Lex's floor; she'd snagged one of the throw pillows from the over-stuffed armchair and the matching throw blanket, and curled up comfy as a kitten in front of the closet.

A sudden twinge of muscle pain flickered across Alexis' belly, making her groan. It was moments like these she cursed female biology; of course Mother Nature had picked her vacation to bestow her period on her. Carefully picking her way around the doctor – who'd also somehow found Twigs the Beanie Buddy giraffe and tucked it under her arm – Alexis headed for the bathroom in search of Midol.

Relief was joyous when she found the bottle in the cabinet, a little beacon of hope in capsule form. With a drink from the tap like it was a fountain she washed the pills down and waited for the cramps to subside as she sat on the closed lid of the toilet. The silver lining of it had been that her boyfriend Patrick hadn't been at the party as he'd flown to Cancun with his family for the holidays, so she hadn't had to worry about looking puffy and bloated in her party dress. She pouted a little, wondered if any of the Fab Four women in her life ever felt this, or her grandmother, when she...no, Alexis thought, not going there.

She reached for the bottle of painkillers and realized she wasn't fully awake as she knocked the bottle into the trash bin with a rattling _KLANG_.

'Ew, ew, ew,' she grumbled as she gingerly picked around the used Kleenex and dental floss, when her fingertips bumped against something hard and plastic. At first Alexis thought maybe she'd also inadvertently knocked her toothbrush in as well, but when she saw it in the rack, her curiosity was pique and she pulled out the mystery object.

And felt her jaw drop open in shock.

She was glad she was already sitting down because the way the blood drained from her head meant she would surely have passed out as she saw what she was holding .

It was a Clear Blue pregnancy test. And it was positive.

Alexis furrowed her brow. That hadn't been in there the day before, she was certain of it, as her dad had made her clean the upstairs bathroom to a high-glossy shine while he dealt with caterers. It was the one luxury her father could afford and never spent money on – hiring his own housekeeping staff. While he claimed it was because he liked to teach Alexis how to be self-sufficient, Alexis tended to think it was more so that ex-maids or cooks couldn't write insider tell-all books about her father's private life since the press already had tonnes of fun chewing on what they did know about him.

Questions began to tumble through her brain like socks in the dryer. Who did it belong to? Was it Beckett's? Was she going to have a younger sibling at age seventeen? Or was it another one of the party goers? Was it a happy baby? Or an oops-there-it-is baby? Or a bastard baby?

Before she had wits enough to put it back where she found it, there was a knock on the door and Castle opened the door a crack.

'Lanie? Everything all right?'

'It's me, Dad.'

'Oh, I thought you were Lanie. She was hitting the daiquiris pretty...' He trailed off, felt every ounce of colour leave his face as he saw his own worst nightmare come to life – Alexis looking horrified as she held a pregnancy test in her hands. 'Lex? Something I need to know?'

She glanced up, saw her father was close to blacking out. 'Oh, Dad it's not what you think-'

'How do you know for sure? Should I take you to the emergency room? Or fly to Mexico to kill that little Patrick bastard?'

'Dad!' Alexis stood up, tossed him the bottle of Midol. 'You bought that for me along with some Tampax yesterday remember? And not that it's your business but Patrick and I don't do...that.'

Castle shut his eyes, remembered his discomfort when he'd been at the precinct and received the text from Alexis asking her to stop at Duane Reade for her on his way home from the precinct. Beckett had teased him mercilessly, while Ryan and Esposito had gleefully pointed out that even if Alexis had been getting freaky with her boyfriend, at least she wasn't a teen mom-to-be. He'd wanted to tie them to the nearest set of subway rails and wait for the Q-train to turn them into chutney, especially Esposito. Ever since he'd started seeing Meredeth, his usually friendly teasing of Ryan had diffused to everyone in earshot.

'I'm sorry, Lex, I forgot, but you can understand my shock at seeing my seventeen year-old with a pregnancy test. Any idea what it's doing here?'

'No clue. But it's positive.'

Castle scratched the back of his neck. 'Well whose is it?'

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_R&R&Enjoy!_


	2. The Game Plan

Alexis bounced the little bit of plastic against her hands, thankful the test strip end had a protective covering on it. 'It has to be one of the women who was here last night, right?'

'Yeah.'

'So that gives us who? Honey-Milk, Meredeth, Lanie-'

'And Beckett.' Castle swallowed deeply as the implication ran into his head like Wile E. Coyote into a brick wall, began to feel the embarrassment he was certain Alexis felt when he'd leapt to the conclusion it was her pregnancy test. He knew his daughter knew he had a social life, especially considering that Beckett had spent more than a few overnights there. But it was one thing to know it and another to _know_ it. 'Maybe we should just put it back and whoever it belongs to can tell us, if they so choose, later at dinner tonight.'

'Tonight?'

'My New Years Day buffet. I have it every year.'

'Oh right.'

Castle started to leave, then saw the look on Alexis' face. It was hard to miss, as he'd seen it once too often on Beckett's when she got an idea at the precinct. 'What are you cooking up in that magnificent brain of yours, girl?'

'Nothing, just...I might have a way to figure out whose it is.'

'Well tread lightly. Wrong words to the wrong person could make a relationship go ka-boom, and I don't have a full-time maid to get chunks of brains out of my ceilings.'

Castle left the bathroom at that, while Alexis decided to turn on the water for a shower. Under the hot, soothing spray, she planned. She formulated, she debated, and she theorized and ultimately came up with an idea.

She'd work the case. The Clear Blue Mystery. No, that sucked as a title. The Life of the Party? Better.

By the time she'd wrapped a towel around herself and scooted back to her room to dress, Lanie had awoken and made it into a sitting position, Twigs still in her lap. She turned gritty, bleary eyes to Alexis, who had retrieved jeans and her beloved Mets jersey from her drawers, headed inside her enormous walk-in closet to dress.

'Hey, girl. Did I wake you last night?'

'Only for a few minutes. How's your head this morning?'

Lanie pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead above her left eye. 'Pumpkin sized and made of glass.'

'Well Twigs is good company if you're feeling hungover. He's a very patient listener, so telling him your sob stories always helps.'

'Who's Twigs?'

'The giraffe?' Alexis came out of the dressing space, found an elastic on her dresser to tie back her damp hair. 'You fell asleep cuddling him last night.'

'Well there was no way I was going to fall asleep cuddling my date last night.'

'No?'

Lanie sent her the understanding smile of a woman. 'You're a woman in the making, Lex, you know how female bodies work.'

'Oh. Oh!' Alexis smiled a little; she could cross suspect number one off her list...and maybe gain a partner in crime. 'So the pregnancy test I found in the trash can couldn't be yours, could it?'

'You found a pregnancy test in the trash? Who does it belong to?'

'No idea, but I was thinking maybe you could help me figure it out, you know, work the case a little?'

Lanie only shook her abused head. She was Rick Castle's daughter through and through. 'I'll help you set up a little case board, but that's it. My brain cells are trying to regenerate right now.'

'Okay, then I suggest getting a shower now, while everyone's still asleep.'

Twenty minutes later, in her casual comfies and hair still damp from the recommended shower, Lanie brought Twigs with her followed the scent of coffee downstairs, heard Alexis fussing in her dad's office. She wandered in, saw that Alexis had set up a little coffee station - pot, mugs, cream and sugar, along with croissants, jam and brie, and fresh fruit. On the large easel of chart paper were the words 'BABY BUMP IN THE NIGHT'. 'Cute title,' Lanie commented, putting Twigs on the desk before pouring a much needed coffee and adding cream.

'So I guess the first part is the crime, right? Or in this case, the discovery.' Alexis uncapped a marker and wrote _Pregnancy test - positive - discovered in trash can 1/1 9:15 am_ under the title.

'And you'll need your suspects.'

'Right.' The words _Suspects - Beckett, Honey-Milk, Meredeth_ were added next. 'So the question is how do I get my clues without being so obvious?'

'Trust me, with everyone so hung over, I think getting info out of them might be easier than you think. And with that in mind, I'm going back to bed. I'll see you in an hour. Maybe longer.'

As Alexis turned back to her board, she munched a jam-smeared croissant and thought. She needed to add in first her own notes from the night before, what she remembered herself seeing that stood out in anyway as unusual. That was going to be tricky, she mused, as they were talking about a Castle holiday party and the only unusual or strange activity would be to not have anything strange or unusual happen.

She heard a stirring in the kitchen, and realized she would be able to hold her first interview of the case.

'The game's afoot, Twigs,' she told the cuddly stuffed giraffe as she grabbed a pad of post-its off her dad's desk and went out to face her first subject.

'Morning.'

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_R&R&Enjoy!_


	3. The Meredeth Qs

_Hello faithful Crumbs-verse readers! Thanks for all the attention this fic is getting already! Just a request - if you're going to add it as a favourite, please be kind and add a review as well!_

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'Morning, Mere.' When Alexis stepped out of the office, she saw Meredeth had wandered into the kitchen, muttering to herself about too much tequila and immediately went to the fridge to find a carton of orange juice and drank the glass she poured in one swift gulp.

Meredeth glanced over at Alexis, tugged at the edge of the shirt she wore. It was Esposito's dress shirt, the first thing she'd grabbed to throw on along with her sleep pants. 'Oh hi, Lex. Didn't know anyone was up.'

'Just me. Couldn't sleep.'

'Not a problem here.'

'I guess the treatment is working?' Meredeth had started undergoing hypnosis to help rid her of the night terrors that had plagued her since she was a pre-teen.

'Yeah, that and a couple hundred shooters last night.' Meredeth grinned sheepishly. 'Did anyone notice we kept disappearing last night?'

Jumping on the opening Meredeth didn't know she'd given the junior detective, Alexis wandered over to get herself a glass of juice. 'I did, but that's because I wasn't half-way into the bottle, or the punch bowl.'

Meredeth blushed only a little; she loved the feeling of sharing with a little sister-like person, and Alexis Castle fit the bill. She was old enough to speak to like a developping young lady but young enough that she brought a fresh innocence to any conversation. 'Well, let's just say we wanted to ring in the New Year in a more one-on-one way a couple of times,' Meredeth grinned, winking at Alexis. It was one of the things that Alexis like best about Meredeth – she didn't overshare on her sex life with Esposito but neither did she pretend it didn't exist, like other adults she knew. 'We had another reason to celebrate last night. `

'Oh?' Maybe her mystery case wouldn't be so mysterious after all. And wouldn't that be a disappointment? Then she'd have to sit on the egg that she was so excited to hatch to her mystery-writing father and his crime-solving friends.

'Yeah.' Meredeth drummed her fingers on her stomach. She'd been careful to watch her diet over the last few weeks so she wouldn't feel guilty about devouring her holiday favourites. 'Don't tell anyone just yet, okay?'

'I love secrets.'

'Christmas Eve, Javi told me he loves me.' Meredeth's round Danish face split into a ridiculously happy grin as she clapped a hand over her mouth, giggled a little. 'He loves me, can you believe that?'

Alexis fought the urge to swear in frustration. That was not helpful. 'Well, duh, Meredeth, we already knew that when he was comforting you after your night terror episode on poker night. Did you say it back?'

'Of course I did. I've never felt this way about a guy in my life. It just...it feels right with him, you know?'

Alexis returned the grin Meredeth sent her; how refreshing it was to be treated like one of the girls, like an equal and not just Castle's daughter. 'I do know.'

'Anyways, I know it's probably an overshare but we haven't been able to keep our hands off each other since. In a safe, non-baby making way of course.'

Alexis made a face at Meredeth's back as she turned toward the fridge and continued, 'That is my advice to you for the New Year, Miss Lex. If you and Patrick get any ideas about consummating anything, raincoats, patches, and pills are your friends, you know? Equally share the responsibility.'

'I agree.' You're not helping at all, Mere, Alexis shouted mentally at the woman who was now pouring herself some juice, and a second glass presumably for Esposito. 'Family planning is everything.'

'I know. Trust me, if and when Javi and I get to that stage, I think latex stock shares will bottom out.'

'Watch what you say, I'm still a young'un remember? I wussed out and went to bed at two while you grown-ups carried on without me.'

'Well, we went to bed around three, so I suppose I'm not that much more of a grown up.'

'What time did you fall asleep, thought?' Alexis asked, keeping her inquisitive tone light and teasing.

'Much later. We got in one more round of...celebrating.'

'Okay, now that's too much info.'

Meredeth simply laughed and left the kitchen with the juice glasses, headed back upstairs to the guest room while Alexis stood by the island and tugged on her hair. She'd have to engineer her conversations much better; asking Lanie would be no help as she couldn't even remember getting upstairs to Alexis' room the night before.

She walked back into the office, considered the board. 'What do you think, Twigs?' she asked the giraffe still perched on the corner of her father's desk. Since Twigs had no response, Alexis sighed, grabbed another croissant and tore the end off, chewing as she thought. Meredeth and Esposito were in a committed loving relationship, but it was also barely three months old. Not very likely that they'd be interested in starting a family when they were still so new to each other, nor would Meredeth have been drinking hard liquor like she was the night before if she even thought she might be pregnant.

Alexis stepped back, picked up the marker and drew a straight line on a second page to create her time-line and added the little info she'd gleaned from Meredeth.

_Mere – went to bed at 3, sexy-time with Esposito until ?. (Side note – lucky girl). Disappeared a couple of times - ask HM/Beckett re: times. Jokes about condoms but is more than likely serious about being well protected. Bottom of the current list._

'One down, two to go. Who will be the lucky winner?'

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_R&R&Enjoy!_


	4. The Beckett Inquisition

_Hello faithful Crumbs-verse readers! Once again thanks for all the attention this fic is getting already! Keep those reviews coming!  
_

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An hour later, Alexis had finished off the fruit and another croissant, and was no sooner to solving her mystery. She thought about going back upstairs, but Lanie was more than likely snuggled into her big queen size canopy bed so that was out. She considered putting on a movie but that was far too morning-after cliche and serious detectives like herself didn't do things like that. Besides it would only have turned into background noise anyways, as she was still thinking about what Meredeth had said about disappearing to celebrate. With measured concentration, Alexis thought back to the night before. Who else might have had the urge to 'celebrate' the night before like Meredeth and Esposito were so fond of doing?

Not her father and Beckett, she thought with a shudder; that was just too creepy to think about. But she had noticed some weird tension there between them, even more than their usual bickering banter. Come to think of it, they had barely spoken to each other all night, and that was seriously weird. Normally Beckett took any opportunity she could to kick Castle's ass, but not last night.

Could she have a reason? Alexis mused. Maybe she was getting a younger half-sibling in a couple months time. They had only been together barely a month longer than Meredeth and Esposito, but their relationship had a much different flavour. They felt like they'd been together far longer, thanks to the drawn-out mating ritual they'd engaged in since her father had been hauled in to the 12th precinct after the launch party for the final Derrick Storm book.

She wandered into the office, took a step back when she saw none other than Beckett herself in the office, looking at the mini-board Alexis had set up.

'Detective?'

Beckett whirled, her face full of guilt and pastry. If there was one thing of Castle's she'd always been unable to resist even before they started dating, it was his breakfast treats, and New Year's Day breakfast supplies would be no exception. She swallowed deeply, brushed crumbs from her shirt-front. 'Morning Alexis.'

'I didn't know you were up.'

'I thought I left my phone in here last night, when I was talking to your dad in private.'

Alexis couldn't stop herself from asking. 'What time was that?'

'About eleven?'

'Okay.' Alexis walked past Beckett, picked up the marker and made a note on the board, much to Beckett's amusement.

'Whatcha up to, Lex?'

'Just a little mystery investigation.'

'And you set up your own non-murder murder board.' Beckett's lips twitched into a small smile. 'Baby Bump in the Night? You have something you need to tell your dad that'll make him lose his mind?'

'Do you?'

Taken aback by the teen's forthrightness, Beckett blinked slowly. 'Excuse me?'

'Didn't you read the board?' When Beckett shook her head, Alexis used her marker as a pointer and gave her favourite detective the bullet on the case. 'I found a positive pregnancy test in the bathroom bin this morning that wasn't there the night before. Lanie and Meredeth have both ruled themselves out, which leaves only you and Honey-Milk.'

Beckett could only shake her head. Leave it to Alexis Castle to take something like that, and make a little mini-drama mystery out of it. She was her father's child, no question. She was awake enough that she had her cop brain engaged and considered the information presented on Alexis' research.

'Have you considered one of them was lying?'

'Yes, and I interviewed them both, both have logical and sound reasons for their non-guilty-ness.'

'And their alibis?'

'Well, it's that time of the month for Lanie, and when I talked to Meredeth, she's punch-drunk happy because Esposito dropped the big L-bomb on Christmas Eve, so I figure that new into a relationship like theirs, they're not going be giddy over a Mere-Sposito on the way.'

'Mere-Sposito, I like that.' Beckett picked up a second marker, added her own notes to the board, making Alexis arch an eyebrow.

'Review photographic evidence?'

'Yeah. I saw you with your camera last night. Those all have an accurate time stamp on them, so you should be able to figure out who was missing at what times during the night.'

'Well Meredeth already filled me in, a little more than I'd have normally liked. Her and Esposito disappeared around nine-thirty, then again just after midnight, then finally went to bed around three and fell asleep around five.'

At this bit if information, Beckett's eyes popped. It pleased Alexis endlessly that there were some things that could surprise even the formidable Nikki Heat. 'It's like she's turned him part rabbit!'

'Come on, Detective, you know it's more than that. Like you and my dad,' she added, knowing she needed to bring the 'interview' back to topic. 'Is everything alright with you guys?'

'Fine.' She said it too quickly for things to really be fine, and Beckett knew someone with Alexis' naturally keen intuition would buy it like a three-dollar bill. 'It's fine, but it's complicated, Lex. We're working some stuff out right now, so please let us work it out, okay?'

Beckett left the office, leaving Alexis to chew on what she'd just learned from Beckett's answers, or lack there-of. Without hesitation, she went to her board and added a note beside Beckett's name, stepped back to examine it then turned to Twigs, who'd been over-seeing the whole drama.

'Yes, my industrious partner, it looks like Beckett is our prime suspect right now.'

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_R&R&Enjoy!_


	5. The Photographic Evidence

Alexis decided to take her life in her own hands and venture upstairs to her room to retrieve her camera and her laptop, see if Beckett's theory on the party snaps had any weight. She quietly opened the door - a practiced skill from when she was up early for Saturday morning fencing practice and her father was still sleeping off Friday night - and had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Lanie was still dead to the world, only instead of being curled in a ball on the floor, she was sprawled face first on the queen-sized canopy bed, her snoring muffled by the goose-down pillows. She'd either forgotten the duvet, hadn't wanted it at all or kicked it away in her sleep, as the lilac purple fabric was slithering off the foot of the bed.

She grabbed it, pulled it up to Lanie's chin, then collected her things and retreated to her father's office. Amazingly, no one was up yet, which only made Alexis shake her head. Grown-ups were supposed to be the responsible ones and yet these so-called upstanding citizens and pillars of respectability were acting like college freshmen. Not that it bothered her, as she needed the quiet and the privacy to conduct her little case.

She booted the laptop, only slightly annoyed when she saw that Patrick hadn't emailed her. He'd promised he would, but then again, it was only nine am in Mexico and she knew Patrick had more of a wild streak in him than he'd ever let her father see. She knew she'd be lucky if she heard from him at all that day. Within a few minutes, she had her camera connected and was paging through the pictures

Investigation aside, it had been an awesome party. Her father had basically hosted a Ryan-Honey-Milk Wedding Reception: The Sequel party, only no Sloan and the addition of Meredeth, which in Alexis' mind was an equal trade. She smiled as she stopped at a photo of her big non-sister and Esposito wrapped in an intimate embrace under the holiday mistletoe. They were so sweet together; more, it was amazing how straight-man, almost introverted Esposito had opened up with Meredeth in his life. He was a private person but she'd seen how Meredeth could make him babble like a forest brook and that, more than all the gooey looks and icky too-much-tongue-for-public kissing, told her they'd be together for a long time. Same with Honey-Milk and Ryan, she mused as she flipped to the next picture, who'd actually posed for a shot instead of...

'Now wait just a minute,' Alexis murmured, zooming in. 'What is this?'

Honey-Milk's wedding rings were gone. Ryan still had his on, a point of pride for him was that he never took it off, not even for work. But where were hers? Alexis couldn't believe she'd missed that the first time around. Maybe she was going to need them resized? She went around the desk, added the note to her non-time line page, went back to examine more photos.

Even more telling, she found one with her father and Beckett in the background, appearing to have a rather animated discussion about something. Curiouser and curiouser, pondered Alexis. That little mystery within the mystery was unfortunately not going to get her due attention.

She let it lie for awhile, left her investigative tools on the desk as she wandered out into the living room. There'd been photographic evidence to suggest the majority of the party goers had kept one glass with them all night and getting it refilled. Perhaps a sniff of the glasses might tell her who'd been hitting the hard stuff and who was taking it easy.

Alexis hit pay dirt when she came across what appeared to be a glass of flat champagne, but a quick nose over the rim told her it was nothing more than ginger-ale. Alexis held the glass in one hand, looked around for another to pour the contents to visually identify an fingerprints and saw only another empty champagne flute.

'Your dad know you're snagging party leftovers?'

Alexis whirled, nearly dropped the now-empty glass when she saw Esposito looking very dreamy and rumpled in grey sleep pants and a black wife-beater as her hormonal teenage heart did a quick bippity-bop in her chest. No wonder Meredeth would want to celebrate New Year's Eve privately when a man who looked as tasty as Javier Esposito told you he loved you. _Focus_. 'Just a little project.'

'You never take a break from school, do you?'

'Occasionally.' Alexis replaced the glass, put a blue cocktail toothpick in it as a visual reminder, then wandered over to watch as . 'But then, do cops ever kick back, lover-boy?'

Esposito's cheeks turned pink as he grabbed a box of strawberry Mini-Wheats from the cupboard and ate them straight. 'So Mere's gossiping to you now too?'

'Not gossip, more like sister-chat. Mere's an only child, and so am I. I guess we kind of fill the sibling void in each other's lives.'

'Fair enough.' Having a sister himself, Esposito sort of understood the need for female friends she could talk to and when that didn't work, she'd turned to their older cousin. 'I'm happy with her Lex, and I'm glad you guys get along.'

'Thank you, Detective Obvious.'

'Mini-Wheat?' He generously offered the box, watched how she was looking around the room. It was the same look Beckett got when they caught a case. 'What are you up to?'

'Just surveying the damage and wondering how my dad will get it tidied up by tonight.'

'Oh yeah, the dinner thing. Well, Mere and I will be here for sure, although she made need to go to the hospital.'

Alexis' radar snapped to attention. 'Oh?'

'Yeah, she just wants to visit her illustrator, Kristof, he was having surgery on his foot a few days ago and he's still recovering.'

'Oh, that's sweet.' _Come on, universe, throw me a bone here_. Before Alexis could open her mouth, Meredeth herself came bounding down the stairs, dressed and towelling her hair dry. 'Shower's free babe,' she told him, kissing his cheek and dipping in for cereal just like Esposito had. He gave her the box then headed upstairs.

For whatever reason, it made Alexis think of one of the photos she'd paged through. Politely excusing herself, she ducked into the office and retrieved the picture.

Yep, there it was, hard evidence that she needed. She'd snapped a picture of Ryan and Esposito acting like complete idiots by the buffet - just by the closet, where Beckett was discreetly fishing in a pocket for - zoom in - yep, a blue box that was unmistakeably from a pharmacy.

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_R&R&Enjoy!_


	6. The Lanie Consultation

'Dude! You could have like a little brother or sister next year!'

'I know!'

'You'll be starting college and have a new baby in the family! That's kinda messed up, dude!'

'Sloan, stop saying dude!'

Alexis paced in her father's office, wondering what her next move would be when her cell had rang; the noise had been enough to make the teen's already freaked out nerves shatter like frozen glass. When she'd recognized Sloan's number, Alexis had picked up the call and spilled her guts to one of her oldest friends before Sloan could get so much as a 'Happy New Years' out of her mouth. 'Look, I don't know for sure what it was in her coat pocket, all I know is that if it is Beckett's test it would change everything. Like you said, I'm getting ready to apply for college this year and I need my dad's support for that but he'll also need to be with Beckett.'

'But all this is hinging on one very large giant if,' Sloan yawned. 'So keep going with your little investigation, and call me if you get anything confirmed, okay? Then we'll freak out right and proper if necessary, which can be resolved with Haagen-Daas and amaretto shooters if necessary.'

'I don't drink, Sloan.'

'Okay, you have the ice cream, I'll drink enough for both of us.'

'Deal. Talk soon.'

Alexis hung up, bounced her phone against her palm. Sloan, of course, was right - the absolute panic she'd felt and the questions swirling about her brain were resting on a giant house of cards named 'If'. The best thing to do was to take a few calming breaths and resume her little investigation. She went back to her laptop, looked at more of the photos she'd taken when she realized something.

There was a file missing. Several in fact.

She paged back through the document window, saw all the files had been upload from her camera, yet picture STP8091 skipped to STP8093. _Video_, she remembered with a jolt. _I took a few little videos last night too_.

She scrolled through the list, and found that her laptop had sorted the files not in alpha order but by file type, and had placed all the movie files at the end of the document list. She clicked on MOV8092, adjusted the volume appropriately.

_Hey Ryan, and Honey-Milk, what's your New Years Resolution?_

_No more sushi for lunch. I keep forgetting I buy it then it stinks up the fridge for days afterward.  
_

_What about you, Ryan?_

_Cutting back to only one fantasy sports draft  
_

_Like you'll be able to do that._

_Oh she's a snappy one, give me that camera, maybe we can get your resolution on here._

The video ended there, making Alexis smile. Ryan had tried to wrestle the camera away from her, but had stopped when her father had wandered up and playfully said he better keep his hands to himself since his wife was right there. His wife, Alexis realized, who was no where to be found this morning, nor was Ryan. This was becoming equally frustrating and intriguing. She could see why her father loved working on cases with Beckett, and why he loved writing mysteries where he could control the outcome.

She wound the video back to play it again, look for other things when Lanie wandered in freshly showered and a mischievous glint in her eye. 'Hello, P.I. Castle, what's the status of the case?'

'Stalled. I have a tonne of clues, like this.' Alexis pulled up the photo with Beckett in the background pulling the box from her coat pocket. 'That's clearly something from a pharmacy.'

'Yeah, it's box of Tampax for me. I'd forgotten to put the new box into my overnight bag and since I got here before Beckett, I asked her to pick me up one of those travel-sized boxes of, like, 5.'

'Damn.' Alexis swore, minimized the photo and went to add a note to her board. 'Well, there's also this. It had ginger ale, not champagne, in it.'

Lanie looked at the champagne flute that Alexis held by the stem. 'You thinking you're going to fingerprint everyone and do a comparison?'

'No, but I thought maybe there was some lip gloss on it and I might compare the shade to the photos from last night.'

'Clever girl. Want some fresh eyes on your photos?'

'Actually, I need to find a way to talk to Honey-Milk without being super obvious, get some fresh insight.'

'Oh, her and Kevin took off early this morning,' Lanie said casually from her spot at the desk. 'Said something about being called into work. Kevin drove her over then went to their place to sleep off the rest of last night. But given the way things went last night, my money's still on my home-girl Kate.'

'Double damn.' Alexis sighed, surprised at the feelings of panic suddenly rushing up inside as her conversation with Sloan came rushing back to her. She'd been so distracted with the novelty of playing sleuth she hadn't really thought too hard about the personal consequences if it turned out she did have a sibling on the way.

Lanie glanced up at Alexis' vehemence. Usually the teenager was the smooth-sailing mature counterpart to her six-year-old-on-a-sugar-high father; to hear her so obviously pissed off was both new and uncomfortable. 'What's the deal, girl?'

'What?'

'Well, you're acting like Beckett when she stalls in a case and that's never fun for anyone.' When Alexis said nothing, just fidgeted with the marker, Lanie folded her arms across her chest. 'What's going on, Lex? Talk to me.'

Out of nowhere, tears sprang up to clog Alexis' throat; she did her best to speak around them. 'What if Beckett is actually pregnant? You guys mean the world to me, but I barely get noticed. I'm just 'little Castle' to you even though I'll be eighteen next May. If there's a new baby Castle, I might as well not even be there.'

'Oh honey.' The instinct to soothe was strong; following it, Lanie made her way around the desk to embrace Alexis tightly. 'Yes, you are the young one, you're at a different point in your life and you can't expect to be treated like one of us when you're still in high school. But don't think for one second that means you're unimportant to us. And yes, there is a possibility that Beckett may very well be having a baby with your father and they're not ready to talk about it with you yet. But again, don't think that means they're not thinking of you. If it turns out to be Beckett's test, she's going to need your support, because it's not just her son or daughter, it will be your little brother or sister too. She'll need someone to make sure your dad doesn't forget those little details. Oh, honey.' Lanie's heart broke a little when two fat tears slid out of Alexis' eyes and rolled down her cheeks. 'We love you, regardless of any hypothetical baby. And let me tell you, those two boys who pretend they're detectives with Beckett? I think the only one in the world more proud of you than they are is your daddy.'

'Really?'

'Remember that case just after Hallowe'en, with the foreign exchange students at Calliope Thrace? Esposito's first thought was to call you and have you translate the emails because he knows you're in French club. And Ryan told me the two of you texted the scores of the Mets games back and forth all season while you were at Princeton?'

'He's the only other person I know who's from New York and doesn't like the Yankees. He told me Dad's head nearly exploded when the dead stripper with the Mets tattoo reminded Ryan he had to text me the score one morning.'

'See? You matter to them more than you know.' Hoping she wouldn't come off as patronizing, Lanie rubbed her hand over Alexis' shoulder, passed her a Kleenex. 'Why don't you take me through your case findings so far? I can be your medical consultant, if you like.'

'Okay.'

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_R&R&Enjoy!_


	7. The Unexpected Break

_Hello faithful readers! Thanks to everyone who has added this story to their story alerts pages. I'm making a final last ditch effort here on a request for reviews - if you've added this fic to your story alerts, please please please PLEASE add a review, as the chapter after this is going to be the last one of this story! Cheers!_

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The talk with Lanie, about things she didn't even know were bothering her until they came gushing out, had made Alexis feel a little better. She knew she could trust Lanie to keep what they'd talked about to herself. The last thing Alexis needed was Beckett or her father's patient looks of pity. So what if it was a little self-centered to think how a baby would affect her family dynamic? She was an only child from a single parent family, she was very particular about sharing her father. Wasn't she entitled to a little self-indulgence as a teenager?

She tried to put it out of her mind while she ate party leftovers for lunch - nothing said Happy New Year like cold chicken taquitos and re-heated brie en croute, instead choosing to think about Patrick and how she still hadn't heard from him. He was usually so good about things like that, it felt a little weird to go so long without hearing from him. Yet another mystery today, albeit one she knew would be self resolving.

She was in the middle of her snack and a chapter from _Dead Until Dark_ when she heard the incongruous heel-heavy steps of her father coming down the stairs. His hand landed on the back of her chair as he read over her shoulder.

'Don't you ever give your brain a rest?'

Alexis barely glanced up as . 'There's a different between reading Poe and Chaucer for English class and Sookie Stackhouse. Sookie equals vacation.'

'Fair enough. I'm sorry, too, for jumping to conclusions this morning-'

'Oh, Dad, let's not revisit that hell, okay?'

'Alright.' Castle wandered over to the fridge, pulled the leftover plate of cold cuts and cheese out and began to build a sandwich. 'Think you can give me a hand getting things tidied up before dinner tonight? It doesn't need to be perfect, just presentable.'

'No problem.' Alexis perked up a little at the task, as it would either let her find more clues or take her mind off of the investigation.

The phone rang long distance then, making Castle roll his eyes. 'That should be your grandmother. Think she's still high on life down in Miami with Chet?'

'She's having fun, Dad.'

'She's an overgrown teenager on spring break,' Castle corrected his daughter, picking up the connection. 'Castle's castle. Ah, Mother, hello.'

Alexis smiled, knowing her grandmother would keep him occupied for more than a few minutes. She missed her Grams being around for the party but then, if she had the chance to go away with her boyfriend, she'd have taken it too. It was nice to see she'd finally gotten over the phobia of living with a man again, though after having her life savings stolen like penny candy Alexis couldn't blame Martha for her hesitation about getting seriously involved with someone.

Thinking of her grandmother made another thought spark in Alexis' head. What if Beckett and her father were going to split up? No, stop it, she told herself, do not go down that road again; the universe has a way of sorting itself out so let it task.

'Well, looks like I won't need to fly to Miami with bail money,' Castle said, hanging up the phone. 'She wanted me to know that she and Chet had a fantastic time at a masquerade at one of Chet's friends places, and one of the other guests also happened to be Constance Dakkars.'

'Who?'

'Meredeth's grandmother. The good one, not my evil ex-wife one.'

'And the world gets a little smaller.'

Castle grinned as the phone rang again long distance. 'She always has to have the last word, doesn't she,' he said easily, picking up the connection. 'What'd you forget this time, Mother?'

'Mr. Castle?'

Castle's casual attitude flipped off at the sound of the young male voice on the line. 'Oh, sorry Patrick, didn't expect to hear from you.'

'Patrick?' At the mention of her boyfriend's name Alexis' head snapped up like Ralph the Wolf going after a fluffy cotton-ball sheep. She stuck out her hand for the phone, making a 'gimme' gesture with her hand. 'Let me talk to him.'

Castle merely shook his head as he walked away from the kitchen island. 'Happy New Year to you.'

'You too, sir.'

'Didn't stir up too much trouble in Mexico? No gambling, no prostitutes, no drinking binges in Tijuana?'

'Dad!' Mortified, Alexis leaped off her chair and actually began to chase her father around the island; because he was twelve Castle ran away. 'Give me the phone!'

'No sir, no gambling, no hookers and my cousin and I only had some tequila at dinner and champagne at midnight.'

'I'll allow it. Would you like to talk to Alexis?'

'Yes, sir.'

Castle stopped running so abruptly that Alexis bumped into him, and after a quick little keep-away with the phone, he handed the cordless receiver over. He couldn't stop the grin at Alexis' horrified expression. 'What? I have to keep him in line some how.'

'You're so dead,' she growled at him, then in true teenage - or perhaps female - fashion, she turned on the charm as she took the call into her father's office for some privacy. 'Hey Patrick, sorry about my dad.'

'Nah, it's cool, he's not as scary as he thinks he is.'

'Don't tell him that or you'll be getting a pat-down from our doorman every time you come over.' Alexis twisted a lock of hair around her finger. 'I thought you were going to email me.'

'I did, but I thought I'd call first. I miss you.'

'I miss you too. How's things with your family?'

'Insane. All my Mexican relatives have two settings - loud and crazy. First night we were here, my cousin Sofia decided it would be a good idea for us to go out for some fun, and she ended up getting us thrown out of the bar because she was too drunk.'

Alexis laughed; the big family was part of Patrick's charming appeal. Since it was just her father, her grandmother and her, she never turned down opportunities to hear about the hundred or so cousins he seemed to have. 'Aside from public intoxication, how is the family?'

'Just as crazy. My cousin Candelas is pregnant again and for some reason wants nothing but salmon sashimi and pico de gallo soup.'

'And that's bad because...'

'Preggos aren't supposed to eat raw fish.'

The comment sparked something in Alexis' brain; she raced to her computer, pulled up a photo. She looked at the photo, looked at the lonely little champagne flute on the desk, back to the photo as she connected the dots.

'Patrick you are a genius. I have to go, I'll talk to you soon, okay?'

Before he could so much as say goodbye Alexis ended the call, grabbed her laptop and her two sheets of chart paper, and raced upstairs unnoticed by her father, who had already started putting the leftover glasses from the night before into the dish bin from the caterers' supply cart. She burst into her room, saw Lanie stretched out on the bed watching _Double Indemnity_ on Alexis' DVD player. The pretty doctor arched and eyebrow as Alexis shut the door and stretched the papers over the foot of the bed. She paused the film, reached for her water as she studied Alexis' excited face once again.

'I take it you got a break?'

'I know who's test it was.'

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_R&R&Enjoy!_


	8. The Reveal

_Hello faithful readers! Well, here we are, the final chapter of our New Year's Mystery! Who's it going to be? Let's find out!  
_

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By the time the essential party people had gathered, Castle had managed to get the condo back to its mostly rightful state. There was still all the dirty dishes in the bins waiting to be picked up by the caterers, who would do so when they were done sleeping off the thirty-first like most of the city was. He'd noticed Alexis had been all giddy when she'd finished talking to her boyfriend and could actually feel his skin crawl when she'd gotten that doe-eyed look to her face. Thankfully, she'd tucked it away as she'd dragged everyone into the office to see pictures from the night before, and Castle couldn't blame her for the privacy, as the majority of the people in those photos were three sheets to the wind and their counterparts in real life were now slightly more subdued. It was moments like that that made Castle feel more than a little guilty that he'd said 'no' to her going to Sloan's college party. Now all the so-called adults would be forever beholden to the teenager because she had what some would wonderfully refer to as 'blackmail bait' in photo form.

He wandered over when Ryan and Honey-Milk had come out of the office, shaking their heads in amusement.

'Your daughter's could make a fortune as a paparazzo, I think,' Honey-Milk told him as she zeroed in on the bar for a cold one. 'Those are some lethal shots and that's only with a little hand-held digital.'

Castle stuck his head in the office, saw Alexis powering down her laptop and trying desperately to hold back a grin. 'What are you so chipper about?'

'Nothing.'

'Nothing named Patrick?' Castle watched his daughter's colour rise, raised his hands in defeat. 'I kid, sweetheart, though not about making a pretzel out of his spine if he ever hurts you.'

'It's not Patrick, but if it's alright with you, I'd like to do a little toast when we sit down for dinner, okay?'

'Sure.'

Alexis waited until she was certain her father had gone before she pulled the notebook with her condensed notes out of one of his drawers. The mystery lady had confirmed it and even gave her permission to announce her findings like she was Sherlock Holmes in a Victorian drawing room, which made Alexis want to tap dance. Not only had her suspicion been right, but finally, _finally_ she had some wonderful glorious dirt before pretty much everyone else did.

The key was the delivery. How would she do it without being over the top yet still have everyone's attention? Should she just come out and ask her when she was due to have the baby, like it was an already known fact? Or let her counter-simply do the talking? No, no she'd said they'd be in on it together, so that meant a little theatricality was in order. Pull a _Ten Little Indians_, a voice in her brain told her; of course, she thought, pick them off one by one until it was a face-off. Yes, that seemed the most logical reason to go.

Settling her nerves with a few yoga breathing exercises, Alexis walked out and saw that everyone had crowded by the buffet tables, eying up the delivered feast with the avarice of those hungover or still partly drunk. When she caught her father's eye, he called everyone's attention to her, and Alexis suddenly found herself with far too many sets of eyes focused on her for comfort.

'Something happened last night,' she began, 'that I found out about this morning, and have been desperately trying to solve the case all day, and I think I've finally done it.'

'What was it?' Meredeth asked, her arms around Esposito's waist with his hand on her shoulder.

Alexis cleared her throat, knowing there was only one way to do it. 'I found a pregnancy test in the trash. And it was positive. It belongs to someone in this room, and I think I figured out who it was.'

'Wasn't you, was it Lex?' Esposito asked earning a scathing glare from Castle.

'Watch it, pal. We're on the twelfth floor and my windows open all the way.'

'Let's just say biology tells a different story. So I know it's not mine, which leaves three other people here - Meredeth, Honey-Milk and Beckett.' Getting into things a little more now, Alexis paced back and forth in front of them like a drill sergeant inspecting his troops. 'I ruled out Meredeth because even though I know you two are really happy in love, it just doesn't feel like the right fit, you know?'

'You gotta go with your hunches,' Esposito agreed.

'So that leaves us with two. My dad's girlfriend and Mrs. Ryan, first lady of the 12th precinct. Now on the one hand, there's much photographic evidence weighing heavily in Honey-Milk's favour, but Beckett...' Alexis trailed off as she fixed her eyes on the woman who made her dad's head spin like Linda Blair's. 'Beckett you said yourself that you and my dad were working through something big in your relationship you didn't want to share with me just yet.'

Beckett swallowed deeply. 'Lex, it's not what you think-'

'Oh I know. Like I said, the photographic evidence was overwhelmingly in someone else's favour.' Alexis turned to Honey-Milk, whose smile was almost as wide as the redhead's now. 'So when is your due date?'

'August fifth. It'll be a summer-time baby,' she said with a luminously joyful grin, as she squeezed Ryan's hand and looked at everyone else. 'She cracked the case. It was mine. Ryan and I are having a baby.'

The room errupted in noise then, like a delayed bomb finally exploding. Castle and Esposito pulled Ryan in for tight, manly bear-hugs while the women - including Alexis - squealed in the way women do when women put their heads together as they bombarded the new mother-to-be with questions.

'Were you guys trying?'

'Is it for sure?

'Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?'

'Yeah it's for sure. I took the test last night after the party died down a little and when it popped positive, Ryan took me into the emergency room to get a blood panel done so we could tell you for sure tonight,' Honey-Milk explained, unconsciously rubbing a hand over her still-flat stomach. 'And here's the kicker. We crunched the numbers and it turns out the baby was conceived in the same room I took the test in.'

'In the...' Lanie trailed off as her eyes went wide, a laugh escaping her lips before she could help herself. 'Oh, no. No, you cannot be serious, girl!'

'Yep. That Hallowe'en party was magical in more ways than one, it seems.'

Alexis elbowed her way into the conversation by sheer brute force. 'So is this a good thing?'

'Yeah, I mean, we weren't trying or anything but I guess the universe has other plans for us. And I have to say,' she added, pulling Alexis in for a hug, 'I'm very impressed you put it together the way you did.'

'Well I just remembered what you said about the sushi, and when my boyfriend called and told me about his cousin, it just kinda fell into place.'

'Kinda like this.'

'Alright, alright, enough jawing, let's get this mama-to-be some eats.' Ryan came over, put his arms around Honey-Milk in a tight squeeze, who held him in place for a moment.

'There's something I'm mixed up on. If it's not a baby you've got under your hat, then what other big news do you have, Beckett?'

Beckett gave a small, almost guilty, smile as she turned to Alexis. 'Your father suggested I move in with you guys, and I told him I wanted to wait until we'd had a chance to talk about it, the three of us.'

'Oh.' Alexis didn't really know what to think about that so she chose nothing and let it slide for the moment. 'Okay then.'

'We can talk about it-'

'No it's fine, I just think we should let Ryan and Honey-Milk have their night.'

Castle reappeared then, having found yet another unopened bottle of champagne and some somewhat cleaner glasses. When he raised his glass, he grinned at his daughter.

'Well, Beckett Junior, anything you'd like to say to the parents to be?'

'Umm.' Alexis searched her thoughts but could think of only one thing. 'There's a saying that goes the more things change the more they stay the same, and I chose to believe that whoever said that meant things like babies and weddings and moving-in together happens but as long as the love is there, then nothing's changed at all. So to the stuff that never changes.'

They all clinked glasses, sipping wine and ginger-ale alike, before Alexis got a little payback on her father for the phone incident and added, 'Oh, by the way Dad, the blessed child was conceived in our bathroom. Guess that really was a happy Hallowe'en.'

The shock on his face, combined with the rose-red blush on Ryan's and the giddy amusement on Esposito's, as she drank her second glass of champagne in two days told her this next seven months of baby-watch was going to be a hell of a trip.

**_FIN_**

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_R&R&Enjoy!_


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